Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1887-04-15
THE FAMILY PURSE.
Plain Facts Which should Receive the A.
tention Of All Husbands.

RECEIVE
tention Of All Husbands.
Few things tend more to the degra-
dation of woman than the circumstances
that ner husband is not able to trust
her with his money, whether because
she is not fit to be SO trusted, or because
he can not bring himself to believe that
she is. He can trust her with his house,
his spoons, his servants, his comfort and
happiness in general. He can even
trust her with his last and best treas
ures, his children. But he can not trust
her with his money. She does not feel
too much hattered, perhaps, that he can
repose confidence in her concerning
these various things; if she were not
living. she is aware that he would then
repose the same confidence in any other
woman, in any servant-girl, indeed.
supposed to be faithful as far as it is
given to what he considers the inferior
sex to be. AS for his children, he is
willing to trust them now to nursery
maid in crowded streets at any time Of
the day
Women do not expect a great deal.
speaking of them in the mass, and not
of the scattered few who are the chill
dren of luxury. We have known wife
to burst into tears of joy at being given
twenty-five dollars to prepare her fami-
ly of four with clothing for the summer.
going without anything new herself;
we have known one to take the money
given her by brother for needed ar
ticle of clothing, and to buy with it
barrel of flour, rather than tell her hus-
band the flour had come to an end.
And we have known another to cut up
every gown but one that she had, in
order to keep her girls fit for school.
while the husband appeared to know
nothing of what was going on, and she
sat in the chimney corner, never going
out by day, growing old before
her time, knowing and seeing
almost nothing of the world.
through the want of decent apparel
And if these are isolated instances Of
their kind, it is only because most
husbands are not really mean, although
they may have to be asked for what Is
wanted, and then may give 1t as
gift, considering themselves generous,
while the wives feel that they have q
right to the necessaries of life, If no
more, and that it should be theirs with
out asking.
But in the most frequent case there 10
no expressed community of interest no
saying or implying that there is just so
much available income, and how can it
best be used; but in the majority Of in
stances, if the wife wants an article of
any sort to wear, she has to appeal to
wishes and reasons, and convincing him
of the necessity of it; she has to do the
same if is is only new pair of boots;
and at the thought of a new bonnet
she has to dread hearing hon.
lily on female vanity and the
idleness of fashions, while she would be
surprised at herself if she had a fifty
cent piece in her pocket with which to
answer a call of charity or buy spool
of silk. Nothing could have been de-
vised to make her more surely feel her
inferiority, or to teach it to the chill
dren, who see money doled out to her
as it is doled out to them. If, under
such circumstances, the wife supplies
herself with small change in a surrep-
titious way, filching from his pockets a
dime or a nickel at time, till she can,
at any rate, take ride in the street car
without asking, and if by means of that
it happens that his children are the chill
dren of a thief, and are perhaps born
kleptomaniacs, he has himself to thank
for the baseness that has been achieved
himself and his habit of making the
handling of money the criterion of sense
and authority. Harper's Bazaar.